HISTORY

Gamma Phi Omega is the birth child of Veronica Montemayor who first thought of the idea for a local Latino-Oriented sorority in the Fall of 1989. Having tested the Greek waters of Indiana University, Veronica thought that the Greek communities here did not offer enough for Latina women. She felt that there was no real place where she could truly fit in. So,she decided that it was time to raise a new sail-one that celebrated the diversity of the Latino cultures.
That semester Veronica was joined by Monica Guzman and Cristina Rodela.

Together, the three women began a nation-wide search to find a Latino-oriented sorority that wanted to expand to Indiana University. First, they sent out a mass mailing to university campuses throughout the United States. They were looking for a sorority that strived for goals and objectives they felt were important for a Latino-oriented organization: academic excellence, cultural awareness,community service and sisterhood. The search was not easy, for they spent the remainder of that academic year following up their letters with telephone calls and other inquiries. The first responses to the efforts were not encouraging.

But they kept trying. In the Fall of the following academic year, Margaret Escabalzeta, Laura Garcia and Barbara Graves joined the three women. Again, extensive calls were made to numerous campuses. This time, the new core group did find some established sororities that focused on the Latino cultures. With these new findings, however, came new barriers. At the time, some of the sororities did not want to expand. Others were only local organizations that did not fulfill IU's national status requirement for Greek organizations. The most discouraging part of all was that a few of the sororities were unwilling to share information about themselves.